


Wide Open Spaces

by greenmountaingirl



Series: Mixtape Memories [9]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019), Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019) RPF
Genre: Gen, Roadtrip, there are a lot of states I skipped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 02:59:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19039792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenmountaingirl/pseuds/greenmountaingirl





	Wide Open Spaces

Liz had stopped eight times for gas, twice for coffee and once to sleep between Roswell and her first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean. It was colder than she thought it would be in Georgia but the air felt oppressive - like she was breathing through a washcloth. 

She had seen a whole lot of nothing in the first twenty hours of her road trip. Had listened to a number of questionable late night preachers on the radio and even sung along to a Dixie Chicks song that seemed oddly appropriate in her desperation for noise. She  _ hadn’t  _ cried. She  _ had  _ cursed. And screamed. And questioned the existence of a God she was so sure had existed a week ago.

Liz took a deep breath - it smelled awful. The ocean apparently looks better than it smells. The sound was nice though. Deep, melancholy and constant; she closed her eyes and let it wash over her. 

  
  


After Georgia, was New York. She stood at the top of the Empire State building and gripped the edges with white knuckles and laughed. This was actually pretty cool for basically just being a big building. New York City smelled like pee and the coffee was expensive but it was worth a stop. She saw Central Park and stayed in an incredibly sketchy hotel and called  _ Papi  _ on what must one of the few phone booths left in America. His voice was shaky and ragged on the long distance line. Guilt gnawed at her ribs making her want to drive straight back to Roswell. 

She didn’t. 

  
  


Michigan was flat and green. Indiana was full of white guys that told her to go back to Mexico. She got a flat in Minnesota and had a really nice chat with an old woman who seemed to know that she was running from something. She bought a tube of bright red lipstick before getting on the highway in South Dakota. She spit down into the Grand Canyon. All the way through Nevada she listened to  _ Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby _ on repeat and she finally cried.  

 

California was worth the drive though. People all seemed pretty here and most of them spoke Spanish. The ocean didn’t smell as bad but it was still cold. She stayed in California, just north of Long Beach, for nearly a month. Picking up shifts at a local diner and living out of her car. 

  
  


By September, Liz had an apartment and had enrolled at a community college. She had a boyfriend named Davy who tended bar and surfed. It would be the first of five universities she would attend. And the second of many boys she would leave behind.


End file.
